Be My Valentine - A Valentine's Day Card Roundup

Hi there. How are you?

Valentine's Day is no big deal at our house. No cards, no presents. It really just another day for us. We even used to host an Anti-Valentine's Day party when we lived in Rockford.

I don't do Valentine's day, but I must admit that I love paper valentines and always have. I have fond memories of decorating the shoe box to bring to school and exchanging goofy E.T., Care Bear and Rainbow Brite themed cards with all the kids in my class. As an adult, I'd send out homemade Valentines to friends and family instead of sending Christmas cards.

I've designed a new valentine this year featuring my sweet little fairy wrens. I've always thought they looked like they were talking to each other, and this is what I imagine they'd say.

Do you send/give valentines? There are so many artful, irreverent, and quirky Valentines available these days. I've pulled together a selection of my personal faves I've found on Etsy.  Enjoy!

1. You Make Me Happy by Meg Gleason/Moglea
2.You're Doing it Wrong by JulieAnnArt
3. Foxy Valentine by Michele Maule
4. There is Nobody Else by Emily McDowell
5. Capture my Heart by Jenipher Lyn/Nightly Doodles
6. You're Cute by Me!

If you'd like to see more of my Valentine finds, check out this Pinterest board.

That's all for now friends. Ta-Ta!
 

Will You Be My Valentine?

Greetings friends!  With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I thought I'd share my Valentines with you.

My “Just a Little Love Song” collection features 3 different collages I created, all based on lovey-dovey Beatles song lyrics. You can buy these cards individually or in a set of 6 (2 of each design).

I just introduced the "Just For Two" card to the shoppe.  I created the original mixed media for my solo show at JR Kortman's last February and thought it would make a sweet little valentine.

I've also got the trusty ole' "Smooch" card available. I made this one back in 2008 and it's easily one of my top sellers.

All of my cards are made by me in my studio, using an archival ink printer. Each card measures 4.25" x 5.5"(folded) and is printed on a nice matte paper.  Though I intended these cards as valentines, you could send them any time!

Please do check out my Sale section in the shoppe. I've got many tiny originals available for a steal.  Art makes a great Valentine's Day gift!

Ta-Ta for now.

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9 Days and Counting!

I can't believe that in just 9 days, I will be a Mrs! I head out to California for the wedding on Monday, so my week has been filled with last minute details, phone calls and packing. I can't wait!

Since our California wedding is small, we are having a large reception back home in July. I just finished up the reception invites so that they can be mailed out while we are in California. Now that school is out and my days are my own, I actually had time to take some good pictures of these invites to share with you here!

Considering I would be making 140 invitations for the reception, I decided to keep them more simple than the wedding invite, which had an envelope liner, and several pieces enclosed within a tiny pocket folder. This invitation contains just  5"x7" card, an outer envelope and an envelope for the response card.

I used a handy little perforating wheel, that I picked up for a dollar at the craft store, to make the response card that can be detached and sent in.  Cool huh? Now,  I can't take credit for this perforated design; I actually came across this idea in the Etsy shop of the talented Michelle Brusegaard.  Be sure to check out her beautiful collection of paper goods.

I went with a totally new color scheme for this invite. I was inspired by one of the typewriters I picked up to use as decoration at the reception. Feels quite summery doesn't it?

Though I do love the look of hand addressed envelopes, time was not going to allow for that.  Just as I did for the wedding invite, I created a wrap-around address label, that features our return address on the back. I'm very pleased with the way they turned out and feel proud that I was able to design, print, and cut all the pieces myself.

All of the paper and envelopes I used for both the wedding and reception invites came from the Paper Source. Love that place! The quality of the paper is outstanding, is easy to print on, and shipping is out of this world fast!

OK, I'm off! I'll be sure to post some wedding pics when we get home in early July.

Ta-Ta.

Spring Break (Work)

Well hello friends! Long time no see.

It's finally Spring Break at school and I've had some time to catch up on things I've been meaning to do for months now (like write on this blog!)

With just 51 days to go, wedding planning has been taking up a great deal of my time. It's exciting, but geez, I'm tired! This week I decided to knock off the few remaining details I need to wrap up for the Temecula Wedding, one of them being wedding favors. As an artist, I knew I wanted to incorporate my art into the wedding favor. I decided to make card sets, a gift I'd hope that my guests would appreciate and actually take home with them. I realize that the handwritten note is dying, but I hope these cards encourage my guests to write!

The artwork that I decided to feature on the cards may look familiar to some of you. This piece started its life as the backdrop for my wedding "Save the Date" card (seen above).  I came across the original watercolor and collage backdrop today, and decided to finish up the composition to use as the imagery on the cards. 

I filled in the negative space with more of my abstract flower forms and added a little more embellishment with my trusty white gel pen. I decided to add a little pop of orange in the right corner just to shake things up a bit. I'm happy with the results, and I hope that my guests will like them too!

My next artistic endeavor is to create reception invitations. We are having a small wedding at a winery in Temecula, California and then having a large reception here in our hometown when we return. Though I love the color scheme I have chosen for the Temecula affair (chartreuse green, black and white) I decided to shake it up a bit for the reception. Stay tuned for more details soon!

The Comfy Chair Collection

I'm excited about my newest incarnation of the Comfy Chair Collection. Now that I have my new IMac and have the Adobe Creative Suite at home, I was able to streamline and sharpen up my cardmaking process.
Each 4.25" x 5.5" card was printed on my Epson R2880 archival ink printer and was hand cut and folded by me. Gone are the days that I printed card images separately, then cut and adhered them to pre-made card blanks. It was so time consuming to make cards that way!

Now I can even print a little copyright and some contact info on the back of each card.

This set features 6 of my new chair pieces and comes with matching white envelopes. The inside of the cards are left blank for your own personal message. The set would make a great housewarming gift!

The Comfy Chair Collection is available for sale in the Paper Goods section of my Etsy shop.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

The sun is pouring into my house today and I'm just eating it up! We don't get too many sunny days during the Illinois winter, so one must savor the time that the warm yellow thing is out and shining.

I've got some new Valentine cards in my shop. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" is part of my series featuring lovey-dovey Beatles song lyrics. I made the original collage with notebook paper, magazine letters and masking tape. The cards are printed with my fancy Epson printer and look superb. The prints are then adhered to white 4" x 5.5" card blanks and come with a matching white envelopes.

Though I tend to sell the most of these Beatles cards around Valentines day, I keep them in my shop year round. Its always time to hold a hand and need some love!

My Valentines are available individually in my Etsy shop for $3.00 each. If your are interested in a set, I'd be happy make one up for you.

Scoutie Girl Blog Feature

Happy Monday friends. With a week of final exams ahead of me, this particular Monday doesn't feel as daunting as usual. All I have to do is proctor and grade. Its a nice way to ease back into school after the winter break.

I'm thrilled to be featured on the Scoutie Girl blog today. This is a big, cool deal! Scoutie girl is a has a huge readership in the handmade art community. I'm hoping it is a boon for my etsy shop. Three of my pieces are featured in the article. I also talk a bit about my collage process and how my passion for collage emerged back in 2006.

On the Etsy front, I have listed my new Valentiny cards. These tiny cards exude cuteness! Since they are so tiny, (just 3.5" x 2.5" when folded) they cannot be mailed, but they are great for gift enclosure cares, a child's Valentine party at school, scrapbooking, or even framing. If you are interested in larger, mailable versions of these cards, just drop me a line and I'll be happy to oblige.

Until next time. Ta Ta.